Atlanta Community Leaders & Citizens Engage With Fulbright Foreign Students On U.S. Politics

By Special to the Daily WorldRecently, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs hosted a Fulbright Enrichment Seminar in Atlanta, for first-year Fulbright Foreign Students. Entitled “U.S. Politics and Elections: Democracy in Action,” the seminar was one of nine taking place across the country this year in which students engaged with a variety of local politicians, community leaders and advocates about the U.S. political system and electoral process.

The four-day seminar, held Feb. 9-12, primarily at the Loews Hotel Atlanta, featured lectures, panel discussions, site visits, interactive workshops, and community outreach and volunteer opportunities. Through these events, participating students developed a better understanding of U.S. contemporary life and culture, policy formulation and public attitudes on an array of important political issues. Each seminar culminated in an election simulation exercise, allowing students to apply the concepts discussed during the seminar.

Atlanta Fulbright Enrichment Seminar participants also had the opportunity to interact with members of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), a 12-member board appointed by the president of the United States to establish worldwide program policies. The FSB will hold its first quarterly meeting of 2012 concurrently with the Atlanta Fulbright Enrichment Seminar, and members joined portions of the seminar. The Board also hosted a Feb. 10 panel discussion, Diversity in the Fulbright Program: Challenge and Opportunity, which was open to the public.

On Thursday, Feb. 9, there was an opening dinner and keynote address given by Xernona Clayton, founder, president and CEO, Trumpet Awards Foundation Inc., at The Carter Center and Presidential Museum.

On Friday, Feb. 10 the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board Open Session panel discussion on Diversity in the Fulbright Program: Challenge and Opportunity from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Atlanta University Center, Robert Woodruff Library, Exhibition Hall. On Saturday, Feb. 11: Community service activities involving Fulbrighters engaging with students in math, social studies and science through the Hands On Atlanta Discovery Program at Parklane Elementary School in East Point.

The Atlanta Fulbright Enrichment Seminar was one of nine enrichment seminars hosted across the United States by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as part of its flagship Fulbright Program. These enrichment seminars, an integral part of the Fulbright experience, benefit first-year Fulbright foreign students and support the overall mission of the Fulbright Program – to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.